Photo by Jon Barash

The Valdosta Wildcats program is in its first year under the direction of Coach Rance Gillespie and to date the Wildcats are perfect. The future of the Wildcats may end up being perfect too. The Wildcats boarded the buses and traveled four hours to face ML King in Hallford Stadium and won a back-and-forth score-fest before the defense stepped up in the fourth quarter to shut the Lions down in a 43-28 victory. Tight End Jay Rome proved why every major SEC and ACC program wants him on their squad next season with two huge TD catches and the recognition of a breakdown in the defensive coverage to score the backbreaker against ML King. Throw in Malcolm Mitchell’s shiftiness at wideout (though he’ll likely play corner at the next level), and this offense really clicks with Ryan Whilden at QB. Whilden is an interesting story in that he was fourth-string two seasons ago and didn’t play football last season to concentrate on his baseball career. He is back this season and leading the potent offense that tossed up 64 points a few weeks back.
With the win over ML King now the stage is set for the Winnersville Classic and the Wildcats get Lowndes at home. If the No.8 Wildcats can best the No.5 Vikings the same night that No.7 Norcross faces No.2 North Gwinnett, the door should be open for Valdosta to leap into the top four if not the top three.

Consider this: with No.1 Camden losing to St. Thomas Aquinas to go 1-1 against out-of-state opponents, wouldn’t an undefeated Valdosta squad, who boasts a 2-0 out-of-state record after beating Lee of Alabama and Lincoln of Florida be moved ahead of Camden, perhaps still living off of the last two years’ state titles? No. 7 Norcross plays No.2 North Gwinnett this week before hosting No.3 Peachtree Ridge next week, at least one team ahead of Valdosta will lose, possibly two teams, thus the Wildcats move up at least one more spot after a win over Lowndes. At this point Valdosta would be No.6 but I’d have a hard time keeping the Wildcats before McEachern, who could also claim a win over Lowndes but the Vikings traveled nearly five hours for that game opposed to across town for the Winnersville Classic, advantage: Valdosta. Also, the Wildcats would be undefeated with a harder schedule than the Indians. If you wanted to keep Stephenson ahead of Valdosta, that is your choice but I would think that the Wildcats, based on strength of schedule would be placed ahead of the Jaguars as well as perhaps Peachtree Ridge, whose big win over Newnan doesn’t look as impressive now that Newnan has fallen to 2-3.

The road to the top three is certainly there for the taking if Valdosta keeps winning and a win this weekend could very well shuffle the top ten up in a hurry. But that’s the great thing about Georgia high school football: the rankings don’t matter, just making the playoffs is all you need to do. A win this Friday would be nice but Valdosta needs to just win enough to make the playoffs because No.1 in December means a lot more than No.1 in October.